I looked yesterday at what Barney Frank’s retirement would mean for the all-important House Financial Services Committee. The next in line to represent Democrats as the leader of that committee is Maxine Waters, and I thought there would be significant pushback to her attaining that leadership role. It turns out that I was right. There’s [...]

As you may know, Rep. Barney Frank plans to retire, which means by next year, both lead co-sponsors of Dodd-Frank will be out of Congress, having secured a legacy of sorts through attaching their names to that legislation. Frank, who has been in Congress since 1980, reportedly sought retirement after redistricting maps were completed. Frank’s [...]

When Harry Reid delivered a debt limit deal back in July that included $1 trillion in savings for drawing down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Republicans were dismissive. They called it a budget gimmick, a phantom “savings” that would have been achieved anyway. Then they got to the Super Committee and realized they didn’t really [...]

The idea that a diverse global movement would settle on a singular idea on which to move forward isn’t very realistic. The Tea Party never had to do it outside of a bumper sticker like “smaller government.” But the Demands working group at Zuccotti Park is working around to that one demand, and not surprisingly, [...]

Yes, switching to chained CPI changes not only the cost of living adjustment for Social Security and other benefit programs that use a COLA, like federal pensions and veteran’s benefits. It also changes the cost of living adjustment for…. tax brackets. A tax bracket that might go up, say, $100 year-over-year would only go up $50, under chained CPI. And that means that higher tax brackets would be available at lower yearly income. This sounds technical, but the point is it’s a tax increase, designed to bring in $60 billion over ten years. What’s more, it’s a regressive tax increase.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, thinks that the Republican efforts to both block any appointment for the Directorship of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and to now block recess appointments so a Director cannot be installed, comprises an “outrageous abuse of the Constitution,” and must mean that [...]

If Barney Frank had a financial services policy that he wanted changed, it seems to me that the ideal vehicle for such a change would be the giant bill from last year that had his name on it. You may remember it as Dodd-Frank. But instead, a year later, Frank is rolling out a plan [...]

There has been more momentum toward the bin Laden death leading to an exit from our occupation of Afghanistan than I expected. I expected more hesitancy from typically cautious Democrats around this point. But here’s Barney Frank making an argument: Explaining his decision to vote for the Afghanistan war in 2001, Frank said, “We went [...]

There’s been a boomlet of stories about Elizabeth Warren’s potential tenure as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in the wake of her testimony before a House committee last week. Paul Krugman advances the ball today. Krugman’s argument was that Republican criticism of Warren’s involvement in the mortgage servicer settlement was designed to keep [...]

Here’s just a quick example for why a pay freeze for public workers is about the stupidest policy you could put together right now. If you’re Barack Obama, you believe have engineered two signature victories through the Congress. You have a health care bill where the regulation that is key to the bill has been [...]

The Senate planned to hold tax cut votes today on four separate proposals: one to extend the Bush-era rates on the first $250,000 of income, the “millionaire’s bracket” plan to extend the rates up to $1 million dollars, a Republican plan to extend the Bush rates permanently, and a plan to extend them for five [...]